Space can be hell, especially for delicate hardware. So when vital instruments need to run like clockwork, sometimes clockwork is actually the solution.

NASA is taking a close look at a design for an off-world rover that’s more Mad Max than Star Trek, one that relies on old fashioned mechanics to make calculations under intense conditions that would fry most electronics.

Venus is no place for the weak. Its average surface temperature is a lead-melting 462 degrees Celsius (864 degrees Fahrenheit), making it the Solar System’s hottest planet.

Add to that a surface pressure 90 times that of Earth’s surface and corrosive clouds of sulphuric acid and you’ve got one inhospitable world that would make the Martian rover Curiosity shake in its tracks.

While other plans for future lander missions would rely on advanced cooling systems – technology that would require expensive research and development, and still risk failure – AREE would aim to reduce reliance on electronic components where possible by replacing them with gear-based calculation engines.

As if that isn’t steampunk enough, AREE could potentially even communicate by selectively reflecting back signals sent from an orbiter by opening and closer a shutter.

The machine itself would be at least partially powered by a wind turbine, taking advantage of Venus’s thick atmosphere. To make it over the rough terrain it would move about on tank-like treads.

A purely mechanical rover like this – while feasible – is unlikely to be practical. At this stage a hybrid is the most likely contender, mixing electronics powered by photovoltaics with mechanics to make the device as robust and reliable as possible.

Sauder’s proposal is in the second phase of development as part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which takes out-there concepts and looks for ways to use the fringe thinking to solve problems.

With such a variety of environments out in the galaxy to explore that make the surface of Mars look like a holiday camp, we’re going to need some crazy ideas to get up close and personal with other worlds.